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Confessions of an English Opium Eater
(Thomas De Quincey)
,.
“Les Paradis Artificiels”
by Charles Baudelaire,
in Les Paradis Artificiels (1860)
Introduction
A champion of the urbane and modernity, Charles Baudelaire
often challenged accepted norms and explored such taboos
as sex and illicit drug use. He depicted the dark inner landscape
of the melancholic mind, and he died an opium addict,
so many people view his life as debauched and tragic. Nevertheless,
Baudelaire, in his essays and prose poems, and in
his renowned poetry collection, Les Fleurs de mal (Flowers
of Evil), demonstrates critical acumen and poetic genius.
Interested in the recreational, spiritual, and imaginative use of
drugs, Baudelaire translated Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions
of An English Opium Eater and fashioned his own
treatise on this subject, Les Paradis Artificiels. In doing so,
he broke a longstanding taboo, inviting us to see both the
visionary benefits and isolating effects of drug use.
f
Baudelaire, Charles. “Les Paradis Artificiels.” 1860. Les Fleurs du mal, Petits
poèmes en prose, Les Paradis artificiels. trans. Arthur Symons. London: Casanova
Society, 1925. 243–88.